


you took my hand and ran beside me

by HearJessRoar



Series: seein' you with eyes wide open [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, bc hi i'm a sucker for identity reveals, these idiots i swear, trapping lovesick dummies in a closet is a great trope you can fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 14:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5969811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Adrien Agreste?"</p><p>"That's me."</p><p>"SON OF A-"</p>
            </blockquote>





	you took my hand and ran beside me

**Author's Note:**

> i should be working on my other fic but like...no. stars are not in position for that fic. can't do it. not today.
> 
> also if you want you can come talk to me at on tumblr. still hearjessroar. i take prompts. or you can just scream at me about your life idk i'm not your mom i don't tell you what to do
> 
> this is unedited so let me know if i did a dumb

He once asked her about the people she cared most about.

“No names,” he'd assured, when she'd given him a look. “It just seems to me that a lady like yourself would be very popular. I admit I'm a curious kitty.”

Ladybug had laughed, swinging her legs beside him and staring out over Paris. It was a quiet night, and they each had plenty of time before the transformations wore off.

“I'm not popular, chaton. There is nothing special about me at all. You could probably pass by me on the street and never know it.”

“I doubt that.”

“Chat, you want to know about me? Truly?”

“More than anything, my lady.”

Ladybug sighed, looking at him with an unreadable emotion in her eyes. “I'm a girl who trips over her own tongue and feet trying to talk to the boy I like. I'm a terrible babysitter. Yesterday I fell down the stairs to my room. My best friend doesn't know who I am, and lying to her about my double life is the worst thing I've ever done, including the time I stole my crush’s phone to delete an embarrassing voicemail.”

She hunched, looking less like the strong Ladybug he knew, and more like someone else familiar to him, if only he could put his finger on it.

“I'm not Ladybug all the time, you know.”

“What, and you think I act like Chat Noir in my personal life?”

She blinked at him. “Honestly, I'd never considered you being any different,”

He gave her a slightly strained grin. “I think maybe we're both using the mask, huh?”

Ladybug took his hand. “What are you using it for? To hide or to be free?”

Chat snorted, “I'm supposed to be this perfect robot boy, always doing what I'm told.”

“You never do what you're told.”

“Not unless you're telling me.”

“Fair enough.”

He brought her hand up to eyelevel, examining the material over her palm. “I think I scare this girl in my class. She's just so...jumpy. I think it's the fact that she doesn't like this other girl I grew up with and she thinks I'm the same as she is. All about flaunting wealth in other people's faces.”

“You come from money, Chat?”

He smirked, tracing feather-light lines on her palm with the clawed tips of his gloves. “I'm Batman.”

“Catman.”

“Whatever.” he took a deep breath. “My best friend was akumatized once. I won't tell you which one, but-”

“Oh, Chat-”

He dropped her hand to scrub at his face, smearing tears down his cheeks. “It was really hard to fight him.”

Ladybug placed the hand he'd released on his shoulder, rubbing little circles with her thumb. “Mine, too.” she sniffled. “It was the worst fight I've ever had.”

They sat in silence, pretending not to notice as the other wiped their eyes. The lights of Paris illuminated her face, glinting off her mask as he studied her.

He chewed on his lip in thought. “My lady, if Hawkmoth found the people we love, with or without knowing our identities, who's to say us knowing would make a difference?”

Ladybug closed her eyes. “Chat, besides my parents, I have five people in this world I care about more than anyone else, and three of them have been akumatized already. I wouldn't be able to stand it if something happened to you or him.”

“I'm on the list?” the thrilled smile spread across his face before he could stop it. She nudged him with her shoulder, giving him a ‘duh’ look. “And this other boy, he's your crush, I'm guessing?”

Ladybug nodded, looking at her dangling feet. He never understood how she didn't get vertigo, even perched on the support beams of the Eiffel Tower like they were. He tended to get dizzy if he looked down for too long.

“Can you imagine what would happen if we knew each other's identities and Hawkmoth managed to akumatize one of us? We'd be in terrible danger, especially our loved ones. He can get anyone to reveal anything he wants.”

“Plagg says kwami magic won't let us be akumatized and that Tikki would have told you the same.”

Ladybug sucked in a startled breath, jerking her head to stare at him so fast that she nearly toppled off the beam. He reached out to steady her, but she brushed his hand away.

Hurt, he said. “No more lies, my lady. What's the real reason?”

“Maybe I think you'll be disappointed,” she whispered. Without another word, she flicked out her yo yo. Before he could say anything, she had already swung halfway across Paris, leaving her partner behind, baffled and heartsick.

-

He never brought it up again.

But _boy_ , did he think about it.

Disappointed? In his lady? _Never._ In himself, for making her think that? _Absolutely._

He kept an eye out on the streets, thinking of her insistence that he'd never notice her civilian form, starting whenever he caught a glimpse of black pigtails, and wondered. 

He looked at girls who weren't very good with kids, who let themselves get walked all over by their charges at the park, and wondered.

He even tried to watch girls talking to their crushes, to see if there was anything familiar about them, in the color of their eyes or the way they stood, and wondered.

But he never came up with anything.

So he never brought it up.

Until fate intervened. 

-

It had been a fairly standard battle, until the akuma had trapped them in an art supply cupboard.

Poor Rose.

She hadn't deserved Chloé’s snide remark about her pottery skills. If she wanted to glaze her bowl bright pink, who was Chloé to tell her no? But Chloé is as Chloé does, and when the projects had come back from the kiln, the spoiled brat just had to trip Rose with her newly finished bowl in hand.

“Oh, well, look at it this way, Rose; it'll be much less tacky as a mosaic!” Chloé had twittered, giving Rose a cruel sneer.

Ten minutes after she'd run out holding the pieces of her ruined bowl, Marinette chasing after her like the wonderful person she was, Madame Clay had returned.

Marinette had not.

Adrien felt a knot twist in his stomach. If she'd been hurt while trying to comfort Rose...well, he'd deal with it later.

He'd managed to duck out in the chaos of Madame Clay using her newly acquired kiln powers to destroy the rest of the projects.

Huddling in the hallway, listening to his classmates’ screams, Adrien closed his eyes.

“Plagg, claws out!”

Feeling the transformation wash over him, he tried to block out the smell of burning desks that suddenly became so much stronger as he kicked in the door.

“Everyone out, now!” he commanded, sounding much more confident than he felt. He noted Madame Clay’s focus on Chloé, and did his best to distract her so the girl could escape, jamming his baton into the wall next to her head.

“Your makeup needs a touch up, it's cracking,” he said, grinning as Madame Clay smacked right into the extended staff when she reared around to attack him.

Two light footfalls announced the arrival of his partner. “There you are, my lady. I was worried.”

She smiled, “No need to worry, I was just _kiln_ time.”

Chloé, who had made it nearly to the door while Madame Clay writhed in pain over her chipped face, stopped to glare at Ladybug.

“You leave this loser in charge of saving us so you can make jokes?” she shrieked, gesturing at Chat.

Ladybug glared at her. “Leave before I get angry about you calling him a loser,” she sing songed in the most carefully pleasant voice Chat had ever heard.

Madame Clay, clearly not happy with being ignored, decided to show off another power.

Ladybug pulled Chloé to the floor as clumps of pottery clay shot inches from her head, packing and sealing the doorway.

But Madame Clay wasn't finished. With a flourish, she fired the new wall with kiln flames, turning it hard as rock.

Chloé began to panic, clinging to Ladybug as tightly as she could. Ladybug gave Chat an unimpressed look. “We need to get her out of here,” she deadpanned as Chloé attempted to climb onto her back, getting dumped on her butt for her trouble. Chat nodded.

Activating Cataclysm, he crept towards the door, keeping one ear attuned to the zipping sound of Ladybug's yo yo while she distracted Madame Clay for him. He pressed his hand to the thick wall, feeling the concentrated bad luck leave his fingers and soak into the clay as it dissolved. He went to grab Chloé, but the girl had already sprinted past him without so much as a thank you. He spared a moment to wonder if she'd treat him different if she knew her precious Adrikins was underneath the mask.

With a shudder, he decided he never wanted to find out.

Turning back to the fight at hand, Chat was disheartened to see that Ladybug had made no headway in getting at Madame Clay’s akuma. He suspected it was the jagged shard of pottery pinned to her dress. The hot pink stood out brightly against the gray fabric.

Hearing the first warning beep from his ring, Chat lunged with his baton, attempting to knock the shard to the floor.

Anticipating this, Madame Clay grabbed the staff, managing to get ahold of Ladybug's yo yo at the same time, and yanked with a ridiculous amount of force.

Chat made a mental note to never challenge Rose to an arm wrestling contest.

The two superheroes collided in midair, tangled in the yo yo string and tied to Chat's staff. His ring beeped again and he began to panic.

Satisfied, Madame Clay tossed them into the art supply closet, sealing the door resolutely as she left to find Chloé once more.

-

In the dim light of the bare bulb, Chat could feel Ladybug struggling against him, trying to untangle the string binding them together. He retracted his baton, and did his best to hold still as she pulled on the yo yo, managing to free them but making the snarls worse. His ring let out a warning beep and she froze.

She grabbed for his hand, looking at the two paw pads that were left. Her worried face was illuminated by the green glow. It made her look sickly and washed out.

“You already used Cataclysm,” she murmured, dropping his hand. “And I can't use Lucky Charm until I sort out my yo yo. Chat, what are we going to do? There's no way for me to untangle this in time.”

“I don't mind.”

She huffed. “I know you don't, but I do, you silly cat.” she wrapped her arms around him. Taken aback, Chat did not move, afraid to ruin the moment. Her voice was soft as she continued. “What if we don't know each other, or worse, what if we do? It'd change everything, Chat.” 

“I don't think we have much of a choice, LB.” he said, wincing as his ring flickered down to the last pad. Ladybug took a deep breath, pulling away from him.

“I can fix my yo yo by releasing the transformation,” she murmured, looking away from him, down at her feet. She reached up to fiddle with her earrings.

Chat found that he couldn't breathe.

“No.”

Ladybug jumped at his firm tone, meeting his eyes.

“No,” he repeated. “I don't care about you knowing my identity, but yours is important to you and I respect that.” the last paw pad blinked out and he grabbed her in a tight hug. 

She gripped him back, burying her face in his shoulder as the green light washed away Chat Noir.

“You're gonna make me sick,” said Plagg, settling on Adrien's other shoulder. Ladybug twitched, but did not raise her head.

“You have to let go of me so I can feed him,” Adrien muttered, gently pulling away from her. Ladybug had shut her eyes and put her hands over them. He chuckled, digging in his shirt pocket for the spare baggie of cheese.

“Really, my lady. I don't mind. You should be fixing your yo yo, not bothering with respecting my privacy.”

“You're sure?”

“Paw-sitive.”

Ladybug groaned, peeking out from between her fingers. She squeaked when she got a good look at his face.

“Adrien Agreste?”

“That's me.”

“SON OF A-”

She cut herself off, looking embarrassed as he laughed. “You know me, then?”

Her face turned as red as her mask. “I cannot believe that the boy running around Paris in a catsuit and making god awful puns was _Adrien Agreste_. Kill me.” she whined, burying her face in her hands.

“Am I really so terrible?” he asked, trying to hide his hurt feelings. Plagg finished one chunk of his camembert, going for another. Adrien let him.

Ladybug sighed, lifting her head up. Her cheeks were still pink, but she looked determined. She picked up her yo yo, examining a particularly tricky knot in the string as she leaned against a shelf.

“Remember when I told you that there were five people I cared about more than anything in this world besides my parents?” she asked, picking at the knot.

“Yes?”

“Turns out there were only four.”

Adrien reeled. Being who he was was enough to get Chat Noir kicked off her list? He suddenly felt like he'd been kicked in the gut, like he wanted to vomit and die all at once.

She noted his horrified expression. “Oh you stupid cat, there's only four because you can't be counted twice!”

Adrien blinked. “But you said...that the only two people who hadn't been akumatized were Chat and that boy you have a crush on, and I've never been akumatized as me, so…”

She stared at him, the tips of her ears turning red as the blush crept slowly back in.

The pieces fell into place.

“Me? The boy you have a crush on is me, as Adrien?” he could feel his own face growing warm. “You do know me, then!”

He felt ecstatic, despite his lady turning to bounce her head off the door in frustration. “I sit behind you in literally every class, you idiot!”

“...Marinette?”

She made a sarcastic hand gesture, grumbling “Tikki, spots off.”

The tangled yo yo disappeared in a blinding pink light. 

As did Ladybug.

Left in her place was a very nervous looking Marinette DuPain-Cheng. 

Her bravado from just a few seconds before was gone, replaced by the anxiety written across her face. She wrung her hands together as her little red blob of a kwami settled on her shoulder.

He could hear his heart pounding in his ears. “You're really...Marinette, you're Ladybug?”

She turned away from him, hunching in on herself, and Adrien was forcibly reminded of when he'd seen Ladybug do the same, so many months ago. How could he not have seen it?

Marinette DuPain-Cheng was Ladybug, and now that he knew that, the similarities between them were so obvious it hurt.

She was probably the kindest person in Paris, always looking out for everyone else. Even if she couldn't really talk to him, he'd noticed that much. She was always the first (and usually only) person to run after someone who was upset.

Even when she'd beat him soundly at video games, she was beyond sweet, giving him her good luck charm to make him feel better.

Ironic, now that he thought about it.

She, the embodiment of good luck, had given a lucky charm to the unluckiest cat in Paris. 

Her voice shook him out of his thoughts.

“I knew you'd be disappointed.”

Surprised, he stared at her back as she shook with silent sobs. He could feel his heart breaking as he placed a hand on her shoulder. Her kwami glared at him, and he appreciated how protective she was of her charge. Plagg had left him to go hide on a shelf with his cheese.

“Marinette, my lady, I could never be disappointed in you.” gently, he turned her to face him, noting with dismay the tear tracks crawling down her face. He swiped at them with his thumb, cradling her face in his hands.

She was blushing again, and looking at him like her entire world hinged on his next words. He swallowed, suddenly very nervous. It was a lot of pressure to be under, having someone look at him that way. 

“I'm so glad it's you.”

The words left him in a breathless rush, and he felt her cheeks warm under his palms. He was certain that his own face was completely pink, but he found that he didn't care. Marinette was staring up at him, her piercing blue eyes boring into his, daring him to take back his words.

He couldn't.

It was completely true. For months, Adrien had been struggling between his love for his lady, and the strange warm sensation he got in his chest whenever Marinette managed to talk to him. There was something heroic in talking to someone who obviously scared the hell out of her, and he admired her for it.

Marinette must have seen the truth in his eyes, because her gaze softened. She wrapped her slim fingers around his wrist, smiling shyly. “Really?”

“Paw-sitively sure.”

Marinette made a face and groaned, hanging her head. “Nooooo, you ruin everything. And you already used that pun five minutes ago, you dumb cat.”

“Aw, progress. You called me dumb without my mask.”

Marinette glared at him. It was so familiar an expression that Adrien felt his heart skip a beat. Ladybug for sure.

Something in her expression changed, and mask or not, Adrien would recognize her back-to-serious-business-you-mangy-tomcat face. She backed away from him. “We can talk about this later,” she said briskly, not meeting his eyes. “There's still an akuma on the loose.”

Adrien nodded. Marinette caught a glimpse of his crestfallen look as he turned to find Plagg. She stopped him, tilting him back towards her with her fingertips on his cheek.

"Later," she repeated meaningfully. Adrien slid his hand over hers, squeezing her fingers.

“Plagg, claws out!”

“Tikki, spots on!”

-

Later, in the aftermath of the battle, when her healing light had mended the damage, including Rose’s shattered bowl and they'd done their traditional fist bump before her Miraculous ran out of power, Alya and Nino found their best friends exiting the same locker room.

Alya had pulled her away, squealing in Marinette's ear while the other girl rolled her eyes playfully.

Nino had thrown an arm around Adrien's shoulders, whispering conspiratorially “Trapped in the dark with Marinette, huh?” he gave a suggestive eyebrow wiggle and Adrien shoved him off.

“She went after Rose and when she didn't come back, I got worried something had happened.”

“Are you a literal prince, dude? Because seriously-”

Adrien tuned him out, glancing back over his shoulder to find Marinette doing the same as Alya dragged her away. She smiled at him, and Adrien felt his heart start to race as she waved. 

Prince or not, he did have a princess, and they'd talk later. She'd promised.

He couldn't wait.


End file.
